EXCLUSIVE: Constance Zimmer Tears Up at the Thought of Winning an Emmy: 'It Would Be Life-Changing'

And to think, we didn't even need a producer to manipulate Constance Zimmer behind-the-scenes to get these tears.

The 45-year-old actress earned her first Emmy nomination for playing UnREAL's Quinn King, the tough-as-nails showrunner of a Bachelor-esque dating show. Zimmer will take on the likes of Downton Abbey's Maggie Smith and Game of Thrones' Lena Headey for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama and she got tearful when asked what it would mean to win.

"I mean, it would make me cry," she tells ET's Kevin Frazier. "It's that thing that you have always dreamt about, and you don't ever expect, you know? It would be life-changing, as they say."

Meanwhile, she couldn't help but laugh about life -- or at least, reality -- imitating art: A plotline from the Lifetime series was paralleled during Bachelor in Paradise the very same week, with Rachel (Shiri Appleby) slipping a diuretic into one of the contestant's food, causing, well, you know.

"The episode aired on Monday and people were definitely like, 'Alright, you've definitely gone too far--' Zimmer explains. "Then cut to wakeup, 24 hours later and it actually happened on Bachelor in Paradise. Blowing my mind!"

She's referring to Chad Johnson, who arrived in Paradise on Tuesday and proceeded to get very drunk, exceedingly violent and then pooped himself -- though seemingly no producer was to blame this time. (For the record, Chad later told ET, "I regret everything.")